Thank you to PopAR for providing us with a puzzle to facilitate this review.

It’s not very often I see something that’s a truly new/unique concept.  PopAR Puzzles are one of those rare concepts!  My girls love princesses, so they were excited to get the princess puzzle to try out.

The puzzle itself is a standard jigsaw puzzle – a low-tech (no-tech, really!), traditional toy.

The girls enjoyed assembling it, together.

Even the little one “helped.”

If it were just this, it would still be a useful product.  (Although, obviously, not new and different.)  But it isn’t just this.  The “AR” stands for “augmented reality.”  PopAR has come up with a very clever way to integrate 21st-century technology with these classic puzzles.  They have apps you can download to your tablet or phone.

So first you finish the puzzle…

…and then you install the app.  Be aware that you need at least iPhone 4, iPad 2, or a fairly new Android device, so if you’re not the type to update your tech tools regularly be sure to check!  Our tablet wouldn’t download the app.  (It’s only 2 years old, but apparently the OS isn’t current enough.)  We did get it to download to my husband’s Android phone, though.  Your device also needs to have an integral camera.  Why?

Because the app interacts with the puzzle!  Your princess can dance across the scene, for instance.  Or get dressed up and have her picture taken on the background of the puzzle.  It’s not very easy to get a photograph of a telephone screen, but here’s a taste:

If your kids are not into princesses, that’s okay; this isn’t the only puzzle design available.  Other designs include basketball, football, soccer, construction, picnic, and planets.  Of course, the apps that accompany them are appropriate to their respective puzzles!  (No princesses dancing in ball gowns across the soccer field!)

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